In the wake of White’s departure, the UO softball program has been gutted. Nine players with remaining eligibility chose to transfer after the arrival of former Oklahoma assistant Melyssa Lombardi to take White’s place.

In this column, Meek shows how the Ducks' unwillingness to get into a salary battle with Texas ties back to the conference’s inability to keep pace financially with other conferences.

Meek suggests Oregon has compounded the problem by paying at least one unsuccessful coach in a non-revenue sport (baseball) the kind of money it wouldn’t pay White.

I agree completely. Officiating is a tough job. At the college and professional levels officials mostly get it right. But they are human. Just as coaches and players make an occasional mistake, so do officials.

That’s life. The late, great Portland State football coach Pokey Allen rarely complained in public about officiating. Allen used to say a game should never be close enough for a call to matter.

Control what you can control. Let the rest go.

When my son played Little League baseball, the league paid for a home plate umpire, usually an older kid, and asked for a parent volunteer to work the bases.

It sometimes took a while for a parent to raise a hand. Sometimes, I did. I was not good at it. If a parent started riding me, I would walk over and ask if he wanted to take the next inning.

Nobody ever said yes.

OK, more links:

Tom Fornelli of CBSSports.com says five programs that will receive lots of offseason hype are Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas and Texas A&M. in Oregon’s case, he’s not sure it’s justified.